By Eric Thomas:Former two division world champion Zab Judah (40-6, 27 KO’s) has big hopes in the near future if he can get by South African Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KO’s) in their fight for the vacant IBF light welterweight title on March 5th at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. The 33-year-old Judah has decided to skip fighting as a challenger to one of the champions Amir Khan or Timothy Bradley.

Instead, Judah is looking for parity in a future fight with the winner of their unification fight in the summer by having the IBF title in his possession, which will allow Judah to negotiate on equal footing, more or less, with either Khan or Bradley. Judah mentions Khan as someone he would like to fight in the near future, but that’s only if Khan beats his next opponent Paul McCloskey and then Bradley in their fight during the summer.

Khan may not be interested in that fight, though, because he’s already talking about bailing from the light welterweight division after the Bradley unfication fight and moving up to welterweight to chase Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Shane Mosley. Judah might not be a big enough lure for Khan to want to take a time-up from his goal of facing Mayweather.

Speaking with Eastsideboxings’ On the Ropes Boxing Radio program, Judah said “It doesn’t matter if it’s Amir Khan or Timothy Bradley. Those are the two guys that are on the radar, but right now Kaizer Mabuza is number one and there is no looking past nothing.”

Judah can ill afford to look past Mabuza, because Judah looked bad in his last fight against Lucas Matthysse last November, and struggled to win a controversial 12 round split decision while fighting at home in New Jersey. Had the fight been in another location, Judah would have likely lost because he didn’t look like the winner in that fight after getting dropped in the 10th and running for the entire second half of the fight.

Mabuza looked impressive in destroying Kendall Holt in the 6th round last February. If Mabuza fights like that, Judah is going to be in deep trouble because Mabuza was a punching machine and Holt simply couldn’t keep up with him on that night. Judah needs to take Mabuza very seriously because the way he fights is the opposite of the slow pace that Matthysse fought at against Judah last time out. Matthysse allowed Judah to survive by fighting slowly at a measured pace. Mabuza is a fighter that is like a big wave that keeps coming. Judah might be too old to contend against a fighter with that kind of pressure and work rate.